Even the old world runs on trucks

Fri, 2013-05-17 11:37

Got the good fortune to take a brief stroll through Dusseldorf, Germany, earlier this week – the capital city of the Germanstate of North Rhine-Westphalia, center of the Rhine-Ruhrmetropolitan region, and home to some 1.5 million souls; making it the 7thlargest city in Germany.

Being a history buff, it didn’t take much for me to start hunting down ancient churches and the like – something that’s easy to do in a city that dates its origins back to 1135.

Yet at the same time one couldn’t help but be struck by just how many trucks of all shapes and sizes roared about Dusseldorf performing any number of tasks critical to keeping this bustling urban center up and running.

Indeed, despite the many references in speeches on this side of the pond about how rail service forms the transportation “heart” of Europe, one can’t help but notice all the many trucks zooming about – everything from tractor-trailers and buses on down to compact works vans.

It just goes to show that no matter how much we discuss the wonders of rail, boats, and planes, it’s always the tried-and-true truck that’s deployed to ensure goods get delivered and all kinds of other work gets done.

Put simply: trucks are just a fact of modern-day life and need to be appreciated as such.